Thursday, September 13, 2007

Karnataka Cuisine has always fascinated me because of its rich and healthy ingredients. I had kannadigas and mangaloreans as my neighbours and tasted much of their food as a kid and grown up too. But not older enough to note down their recipes ^_^ I loved their jonna-rottis (jowar rotis/bread), uppit, kosumbari's, thalipit, chutney powders, etc...so on and so forth, half of them I cannot even recollect their names but truly enjoyed eating them.

Nevertheless I didn't have any hands on experience cooking Karnataka cuisine so internet and google were at my rescue. I wanted some good, authentic and common recipes which are also famous in every house from this state and delicious too. Finally after a week long of research I ended up cooking the famous Udipi Sambhar from here and Green Beans Gojju from here. Also you can find my first post when I started this blog was Akki Roti, if you want to see the detailed recipe, click here. I hope you all will enjoy the celebration of this great state Karnataka and its cuisine.

Cook the dal with a pinch of turmeric and a tsp of oil in a cooker upto 3-4 whistles, mash it and while its still hot/warm and keep as side.

Meanwhile heat oil in a deep heavy bottom pan to make the sambhar.

Add asafoetida followed by shallots/madras sambhar onions, green chillies and half of the curry leaves off the sprig, and sauté until the onions become transparent and start to leave the juices.

Add the vegetables of your choice, tomato pieces and turmeric powder, if not adding any vegetables then add more shallots/madras sambhar onions.

Cook covered until the vegetables are cooked with enough water to cover the veggies, take care to retain their shape/texture.

Once thoroughly cooked add the tamarind pulp and cook covered until the raw smell of the tamarind goes off, approx 5 mins.

Add the ground paste, jaggery and salt to taste. Sambhar should not be too thick nor too watery, so add more water if necessary. You will notice that your kitchen is filled with nice aroma of this sambhar.

Once the mixture comes to a boil add the cooked dal, mix well and check for salt.

When the sambhar just begins to boil, switch off the stove. Make sure you don’t boil the sambhar after adding the dal coz the dal will lose its soft texture.

For tempering/poppu/tadka:

Heat a tsp of oil in a small kadai, add the mustard seeds, when it starts to splutter add the dry red chillies, curry leaves and asafoetida. fry for a min and pour over the sambhar.

Note: You may also make this sambhar powder/paste in large quantity without the coconut and store in air-tight container for future use. Just dry roast coconut and grind along with a couple of spoons of this sambar powder whenever needed.

In a pan, dry roast the cumin/jeera, bengal gram dal/chana dal, sesame seeds/til until light brown. Grind in the mixie with coconut, green chillies, asafoetida, coriander and little water to a fine paste.

Food Event: This straight away goes to Asha of Foodie's Hope, Asha is hosting this month's RCI-Karnataka. RCI-Regional Cuisines of India is celebration of various cuisine across India. Each month we get an opportunity to learn, explore and experiment food from different states of India. Of course the thought process was started by Lakshmi K of Veggie Cuisine.Asha dear I am sending here with two entries on RCI, Udipi Sambhar and Green Beans Gojju your way.

Well done, Padma! Growing up, I too had Kannadiga neighbors & I used to just looooooove eating at their place. I was sad when they moved away after a few years.Your udipi sambar looks so good & I love sambar. I will def be trying this out when I can.BTW, totally unrelated- what is that font you use while editing your pics? It looks so cool & casual.

Hi Padma, thanks for visiting my blog! Just beginning to read here -- your green beans gojju looks great, but right now I am eyeing that udipi sambhar. It looks like just the thing to help me get over this cold :) Photos look lovely, and I enjoyed the links to new recipe sites too, thanks! :)

Redchilies, hey I am not at all good at taking photos, recently I learned few tricks on the internet and few through experience, now I can say I am having 2 months of exp on blogging n taking snaps...so we grew with time you see. But thanks for ur compliment..tx for visiting here

I have been craving what i call 'Bangalore Sambhar' for quite a while now..tried your recipe of Udipi Sambhar and it was yummyy ..Thank you so much!! I also figured that what I call Bangalore sambhar is indeed udipi sambhar (I love that sweet touch that the jaggery gives)

Hi Padma! I had prepared Idli yest at the weekend in my house, and i tried your Udipi Sambar, it was very delicious!! Every one in my house liked it a lot. Just wanted to let you know dear. Thnx for sharing this delicious recipe!!

I made ur Udipi sambar today n it tasted excellent...it was exactly like the sambar I eat in famous udipi hotels, so yummy n delicious...was excellent along wth idli n peanut chutney...I always used to wonder how the cooks in udipi hotels make it ,now I know the secret,thanks to you...thnk u so much for sharing.